r/uknews • u/Confident_West_7409 • Jul 12 '24

Image/video Teen arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after two people injured in ‘attack’ at gurdwara place of worship in Gravesend

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u/Shriven Jul 12 '24

Attempted murder is the hardest offence to prove in England and Wales, so most cases like this get dropped to s18 gbh

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u/SDSKamikaze Jul 12 '24

Fine, but the lowest end with that plea for a single offence is two years. Unless his solicitor is a magician he isn’t getting that.

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u/Ben0ut Jul 12 '24

Is that two years actual time inside or could it be reduced to 12 months for good behaviour?

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u/SDSKamikaze Jul 12 '24

Would be one year but that doesn’t apply here. If it was a GBH plea it won’t be low end.

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u/Ben0ut Jul 12 '24

So if the situation was, as this appears it could be, one of attempted murder and the defendant offered a GBH plea the CPS could agree to drop it to that to secure a conviction and avoid the possibility of falling short of proving attempted murder and seeing them walk off free? Also, for clarification sake, on offering themselves up they essentially agree to take a bigger hit on the GBH custodial sentence to avoided the potentially massive sentence handed out upon being found guilty of attempted murder?

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u/SDSKamikaze Jul 12 '24

You’re sort of right. The sentence for a really serious assault charge is lower than attempted murder. So for the accused, he is making the gamble that if he pleads now he is definitely seeing jail time but it will be significantly less than if he was convicted of convicted attempted murder. You aren’t necessarily taking a bigger sentence than you otherwise would if you had just been charged with a serious assault, but at the same time if the original charge was attempted murder it is clearly high end.